Secretariat’s jockey says the movie is `alright’

There is only one man on earth who knows what it felt like to sit on Secretariat’s back on June 9, 1973. Ron Turcotte was that man who led Big Red around the Belmont Park dirt on the way to horse racing’s first Triple Crown since 1948.

The 31-length win stamped Secretariat as the greatest horse of our time — maybe all time. At the time, I’m sure, people from the ’70s thought that one day there would be a movie made about Big Red.

Secretariat and jockey Ron Turcotte on the way home to win the historic 1973 Belmont Stakes. (Associated Press)

They were right. “Secretariat” opened earlier this month. I saw it last week and I would give it five stars (out of 10). The racing scenes were great but the rest of the story left me feeling like they left the butter off the popcorn.

Turcotte saw the movie, too. He saw it earlier this year in Kentucky.

“I think it’s alright,” Turcotte said from his home in New Brunswick. “It’s alright for everyday people. I think they will enjoy it and say it’s a very good movie.”

Turcotte, 69, has been confined to a wheelchair ever since an accident on track in 1978. He reflects often on those days with he and Big Red, especially the sparkling performance in the Belmont.

Ron Turcotte today.

He remembers Secretariat as being a very kind horse, one he could get close to.

“He was as gentle as a lamb,” he said. “And he was so smart. You could show him something on one day and, the next day, he would do the same thing. And, he loved candy. Lucien (trainer) Laurin only wanted to give him carrots. No sugar. Of course, I snuck him some candy. The horse was really cool. The more you did with him, the calmer he got.”

In the movie, Turcotte was played by a real-life jockey named Otto Thorwarth, who rides in Kentucky. Turcotte had no problem with the performance, although, for the life of him he can’t ever remember whacking a taxi cab with a crutch (which Otto Turcotte did in the movie).

Other flaws from Turcotte: the way the movie dressed up trainer Lucien Laurin (played by John Malkovich). In the movie, Laurin, a times, looked like he could have played Huggy Bear in the old Starsky and Hutch TV series. Loud pants. Louder hats.

“Lucien was a very conservative dresser,” Turcotte said. “He was not a goofball. And, I don’t think he ever had a golf club in his hand (in his first scene, that’s what he was doing, hitting golf balls). He was a fisherman. No, I never saw him wear clothes like that.”

Turcotte also had a problem with the way trainer Frank “Pancho” Martin was portrayed. Martin trained Secretariat’s rival, Sham. In the movie, Martin can across as a loudmouth, obnoxious lout. It came across in press conferences that involved the two camps.

Turcotte said it wasn’t that way.

“Pancho is a wonderful person, always was,” Turcotte said. “I loved him, he was great to me and it hurt me to see the way he was portrayed.”

Turcotte said he is going to go see the movie again, at a special showing in New Brunswick on Oct. 27. He wants to see it to get a better perspective.

“The first time I saw it, I went in expecting the worst but coming out with a good feeling,” he said. “Yes, every day people will like it, horse lovers will like it. People who know the game might find a lot of faults.”

If you have seen the movie, feel free to let me know what you thought about it. How many stars?